Top 10 Questions to Ask Your Estate Planning Attorney in California

Quick answer: The most useful question you can ask a California estate planning attorney is who funds the trust. Most people never ask it, and it is the question whose answer decides whether the plan works. After that: flat fee or hourly, who drafts, who records the deed, what a change costs later, what happens when you die, and whether they will tell you that you do not need a trust at all.

Sitting across from an estate planning attorney for the first time is a little like going to a mechanic without knowing anything about cars. You know something needs doing, and it is hard to tell whether you are getting the right work at the right price.

Here are twelve questions, with what you are actually asking and what a real answer sounds like. Take them to whoever you are considering, including us.

1. Is the fee flat or hourly, and what does it include?

You are asking whether you can budget this. Estate planning is one of the few areas of law that prices well as a flat fee, because the work is knowable in advance.

A good answer names a number or a tight range after they understand your situation, then says what is inside it. A bad answer quotes a trust price before hearing anything about your family. Nobody can price a plan they have not scoped, and a firm that does is selling a document rather than a plan. Our own numbers are published on the fees page rather than quoted on a call.

2. Who actually drafts my documents?

You are asking whether an attorney reads your file or a paralegal runs a template.

Software is fine. Every firm uses drafting software, including this one. The question is whether a lawyer makes the judgment calls about your family and then reads the output. Ask it plainly and listen for hedging.

3. Do you prepare and record the deed, or do I?

The house is usually the largest asset and the one that forces probate. Getting it into the trust takes a deed, signed, notarized, and recorded, plus a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report filed with it.

“We will give you instructions” is an answer. It is just not the answer most people think they are getting. Know which one you are buying.

4. Who funds the rest of the trust, you or me?

Same question, bigger. Signing the trust builds an empty bowl. Funding is the part where the accounts get retitled and the beneficiary designations get fixed.

Eighty percent of trusts are going to fail, and this is why. Some firms fund everything, some coach you through it, and some hand you a checklist at the signing and consider the matter closed. All three are legitimate business models. Only one of them is what you assumed you were buying. If you already have a trust, the seven signs it was never funded will tell you which one you got.

5. What happens to my accounts, and who calls the bank?

This is the follow-up that exposes a vague answer. Retitling a brokerage account means a phone call, a form, and a new signature card, and there are usually six or eight of these.

Ask who makes those calls and what happens when the bank pushes back. The funding checklist shows the scope of the work being assigned.

6. Do I need a trust, a will, or both?

You are testing whether they sell one product.

Not everyone needs a trust. If you own no real property and everything you have passes by beneficiary designation, a trust may be an expensive answer to a question you do not have. An attorney who cannot describe the case where they would talk somebody out of a trust has never talked anybody out of one. For the general comparison, see trust or will.

Almost everyone who needs a trust also needs a will, because the pour-over will catches whatever never made it into the trust.

7. What happens if I become incapacitated?

Estate planning is not only about death, and incapacity is the part people skip. A plan with no incapacity layer sends your family to court for a conservatorship, which is expensive, public, and slow.

Ask what the plan does when you are alive and cannot sign. The answer should include a durable power of attorney with the specific powers spelled out, an advance health care directive, a HIPAA authorization, and language naming who takes over as trustee and how incapacity gets determined. See the California durable power of attorney for what those powers have to say.

8. How does community property affect my plan?

California is a community property state and most out-of-state forms do not ask the question. What you owned before the marriage, what you inherited during it, and what you earned while married are three different categories with three different results.

This matters most in a second marriage and when one spouse brought a house in. Ask how they will characterize your property and whether anything needs to be documented in writing. If you are remarried with children on either side, blended family planning is the deeper version of this question.

9. What are the tax consequences for my estate?

For most California families the honest answer is that there are almost none, and an attorney who leads with estate tax planning is either selling something or has not asked about your net worth.

California has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. The federal exemption is $15,000,000 per person for 2026, so it reaches very few families. The taxes that do matter are property tax under Proposition 19 and capital gains, and those are worth real attention. If someone quotes you a much lower federal exemption, their material predates the 2025 change.

10. What is your position on putting rental properties in LLCs?

This is the fastest way to find out whether somebody is planning or selling.

A California LLC costs at least $800 a year in franchise tax, every year, whether it earns anything or not. For most families with one or two rentals, that same money buys more real protection as additional liability insurance and an umbrella policy. The LLC can be pierced, and any competent plaintiff’s lawyer will try. There are situations where an LLC is right. “All rentals go in LLCs” is not advice, it is a product. Our longer answer is at rentals and LLCs.

11. How do you handle Proposition 19 on my house?

Since February 2021, a family home passes to a child without reassessment only if that child makes it their principal residence and claims the homeowners’ exemption within a year, and only up to a value cap. The old exclusion for rentals and second homes is gone entirely.

Any California estate planning attorney should be able to explain that in plain language and say what it means for your specific property. If Proposition 19 never comes up in a conversation about your house and your children, that is the answer. See Prop 19 planning and run your own numbers on the Prop 19 calculator.

12. What do you charge to change it later, and where do my originals live?

Life changes. A trustee dies, a child divorces, you sell the rental, you move. Ask the amendment price and whether small changes are included for some period, and ask now, because the alternative is finding out at the moment you need the change and putting it off.

Then ask where the originals live. The original will must be lodged with the court within 30 days of death under Probate Code § 8200, and a will that was in the decedent’s possession and cannot be found is presumed revoked under Probate Code § 6124. A safe deposit box in the decedent’s sole name is a common and bad answer, because it can take a court order to open it.

One more, and it is not a question

Notice how the consultation feels. You are picking somebody your family will call on the day you die, and the person who is good at that conversation is usually the person who is good at this one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I ask an estate planning attorney before hiring them?

Start with who funds the trust, because that single answer decides whether the plan works. Then ask whether the fee is flat or hourly and what it includes, who drafts the documents, whether the firm prepares and records the deed on your house, what an amendment costs in three years, and what happens when you die, meaning whether the firm handles the administration and what that costs.

Does California have its own estate tax?

No. California has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. The federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000 per person for 2026 and is inflation indexed, so federal estate tax reaches very few families. Property tax under Proposition 19 and capital gains are the taxes that actually affect most California estate plans.

How much does an estate plan cost in California?

It depends on the firm and the complexity, and a flat fee is common for a straightforward plan. What matters more than the number is what sits inside it: whether the deed on your house is prepared and recorded, whether the firm retitles your accounts or hands you a checklist, and what a later amendment costs. Our current fees are published on the fees page.

Can I do estate planning without a living trust in California?

Sometimes. If you own no real property and your accounts all carry valid beneficiary designations, a will plus those designations may be enough, and a trust would be an expensive answer to a question you do not have. If you own a house in California, a trust is usually the difference between your family administering a trust and your family going through probate.

How often should I update my estate plan in California?

There is no fixed interval worth memorizing. Update on events: a death, a birth, a marriage, a divorce, a move into or out of California, the sale or purchase of real property, a large inheritance, a disability diagnosis, or the death or falling out with anyone you named as trustee, executor, or agent. A read-through every three to five years catches what the events do not.

Does an estate planning attorney have to be local to me?

They have to be licensed in California, because California law governs your property here. They do not have to be in your county. Ridley Law is fully remote, which means no half-day round trip, and it means family members in different cities can join the same meeting.

What to do next

If you are deciding what you need, start with trust or will and how the estate planning process works here. If you already have a plan and want to know whether it holds up, run the trust checkup and read the mistakes we see most often. For what things cost, the fees page is the source of truth.

Talk to Ridley Law

If you want to run these twelve past us, the consultation is a conversation rather than a pitch, and no price is quoted until we understand what you have. Talk to Eric.